Saturday, November 29, 2014

We were sent a private stream of this a while ago, adored it and promptly forgot that it was due for free download public release on the 24th. Ah well, it's up now, so everyone can share in an intriguing new voice from the Scottish undergrowth. Christopher Duncan by name, a properly classically trained musician with a track from an album due on Fat Cat in the spring, one which exhbits a delicate acoustic warmth with multitracked harmonic vocals and a subtly restrained lush backing. Plus, top whistling.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Big days ahead for Ellis Jones and co, signing to Turnstile for an album on 9th February, No One's Coming For Us, not to mention a spot at our own Leicester Indiepop Alldayer IV a month later. This taster thinks about becoming Superchunk/Weezer power-pop, decides it's not that confident, then after some hesitancy barging through anyway, Jones' as ever semi-apologetic wheedling central to the impression.

Monday, November 24, 2014

Grawl!x - yeah, I know - is James Machin of Derby, who we tweeted about a couple of months ago so taken were we by his delicate acoustic soundscapes. This new single out today may well feature bruised vocal and minimal piano at its melancholic emotional centre but around it appears all manner of fluttering, reverberating and shimmering not dissimilar from what members of Animal Collective get up to on their solo records. Debut album Good Grief is set for Valentine's Day 2015.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

With that deliciously smoky voice against those rarely standing still backings Shah's debut of last year Love Your Dum And Mad was one of the great underappreciated albums of 2013. There's a second album out early next year trailed by this track released as a surprise yesterday, an unsteady rush of guitar noise, percussion loops and piano set just so, and that enigmatic jazz club Nico vocal that could pretty much sell you on anything.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

The artists formerly known as Dog Is Dead are back with something not unlike the distorted blues of Kill It Kid, replacing the blues hollering with multipart harmonies and the stomp with a sizzle. No news of proper releases being imminent, but there's a couple of already sold out dates at the start of December.

Friday, November 07, 2014

In the three and a half years since Ms Moss last crossed our path she's relocated many times and shifted not just her style - ambient atmospherics, rippling keys, atmospheric rhythms, plenty of space, no immediately noticeable acoustic guitar, not as much like Lana Del Rey as you might be thinking from title and description - but her very tone of voice for much of the time. Tom Fleming of Wild Beasts pops in for very obviously Tom Fleming-like backing vocals. A proper old-school grower, and given this is the lead track from an EP, merely titled S, out January 26th on new home Bella Union it's intriguing to see where this is going to end up.

Monday, November 03, 2014

And so we officially say farewell to the Newcastle dreamers, whose widescreen indie ambition was wound up in physical form in June but just today posthumously put out their album Chants For Friends, recorded two years ago but without finding a home. Start It is a prime example of what made them such an exciting prospect back around Six Wolves and Fast Fast in 2010-11, building through Sarah Hall's dreamy vocals into an epic soaring soundscape laced with frailty and melancholy that hints at what they could have done while still pressing their point home as a hugely undervalued band in their day.

Sunday, November 02, 2014

Nottingham's B-movie sci-fi electro duo return with a new EP, of which this is the title track on the 24th with an album due next spring, and a sense of impending doom, deconstructed electro straining to cram its distorted synth lines and rattling bass pulses into one small space.